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On May 14, 2019, FERC granted in part, and denied in part, United Illuminating Company’s (“United Illuminating”) request for approval of three transmission rate incentives for investments in the Pequonnock Substation Project (“Project”). United Illuminating asked FERC to approve three transmission incentives: (i) a 50-basis point return on equity (“ROE”), (ii) an Abandoned Plant Incentive, and (iii) a Construction Work in Progress (“CWIP”) Incentive. United Illuminating also requested waivers of several of FERC’s regulatory requirements, including…

On May 16, 2019, FERC issued four orders on related complaints against the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc. (“MISO”) by Tilton Energy LLC (“Tilton”), American Municipal Power, Inc. (“AMP”), and Dynegy Marketing and Trade, LLC/Illinois Power Marketing Company (“Dynegy Companies” or “Dynegy”), as well as a complaint against PJM Interconnection, L.L.C. (“PJM”) by AMP and the Northern Illinois Municipal Power Agency (“NIMPA”). The complaints alleged that MISO’s and PJM’s assessment of congestion and other costs…

On May 6, 2019, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (“Oregon DEQ”) denied a water quality certification under section 401 of the Clean Water Act (“CWA”) for the proposed Jordan Cove liquefied natural gas (“LNG”) export terminal and its feeder pipeline, the Pacific Connector, to be located on Oregon’s southern coast.…

On Monday, May 6, 2019, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (Oregon DEQ) denied a water quality certification under section 401 of the Clean Water Act for the proposed Jordan Cove liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal and its feeder pipeline, the Pacific Connector, to be located on Oregon’s southern coast.…

On April 15, 2019, the environmental group Columbia Riverkeeper (Riverkeeper) filed suit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington, alleging that the Corps’ operation of the Chief Joseph Dam is in violation of the Clean Water Act (CWA). Riverkeeper’s complaint raises important questions as to whether certain discharges from hydropower facilities trigger the need for an authorization under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination…

Last week, the U.S. Department of Energy (“DOE”) released an update (“2018 Update”) to its 2017 U.S. Hydropower Market Report (“2017 Report”). The 2018 Update provides a status report on the U.S. hydropower industry as of the end of 2018, and includes publicly available data and information on existing U.S. hydropower facilities, including trends on capacity, generation, and new investment.…

On April 23, 2019 FERC granted in part and denied in part a rehearing request (“Rehearing Order”) filed by American Municipal Power Inc. (“AMP”) of FERC’s February 5, 2018 order (“February 5 Order”) accepting PJM Interconnection, L.L.C.’s (“PJM”) revisions to amend its Open Access Transmission Tariff (“Tariff”) and Amended and Restated Operating Agreement (“Operating Agreement”) to improve the process for adding a pseudo-tied resource into the PJM region. As part of this process, PJM proposed…

In an order on rehearing issued April 18, 2019, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission or FERC)—applying the newly minted Section 36 of the Federal Power Act (FPA), 16 U.S.C. § 823g—decided to extend the new license term for Pacific Gas and Electric’s (PG&E) Poe Hydroelectric Project by 10 years. Pacific Gas and Electric, 167 FERC ¶ 61,047 (2019). FERC’s initial relicensing order granted a new 40-year license term for the project, but on rehearing, the…